Where to from here...

[kev]

Last 4 weeks have been a rerun of prior seasons. The hope that sprung from the 4 wins we had, has dimmed to be replaced by reality.

Starting the season I wasn’t sure how we would go. Our wins have been rough, won on the back of team heart and some really good players putting their hands up. But it always felt like it couldn’t be sustained.

What I was looking for was for the team to get better. And they haven’t. We look tired. Oppositions have us worked out and we just make too many mistakes to be in a position to win games.

Yesterday I think we saw glimpses of the future with a really young backline rolled out. To see Nock, Cooper, Tua, Gregory, Rush playing together was fantastic. When was the last time we had all this talent? I hope they trust these young guys, let them learn their trade in the Cambridge blue by signing them up for the next two seasons, starting them and giving them as much game time as they can for the rest of the season.

There have been times when winning a game in a season was an issue so let’s not go there with stupid decisions. But we have been way way too conservative in signing young talent and developing it on the field. We want more of yesterday not less, mixing established well performing players with young talent.

[taniwharugby]

@kev I think bar Otago, we have won all the games we should have won (and probably all we will win) but was the manner of the losses that gets me.

I would say if someone had said you will win 4 games at the start of the season, I'd have gone yes please, but I also think I would have expected we would have 5 or 6 BPs too.

We were never gonna beat Ta$man, but the writing was on the wall then when we just struggled to finish our opportunities

Then HB, I think we created more chances in this game than any of our other ones, yet our handling and finishing was 2nd 5th rate.

Less said about the limp game v Otago the better.

Yesterday I saw enough in the young guys to once again give me false hope, but again, our lack of finishing cost us a chance of a win or even a BP...

I think we have made some selection howlers too, continuing with Hawkins rather than giving Cooper/Faiane a decent run at starting, I said at the start of the season one or the other needed to be given the reins and given a chnace to grow into the role...leaving Gregory at FB, his best game of the season was yesterday...Benching Nock last week...benching Olsen for Tou yesterday, I think he was part of why our scrum was struggling in that first half, the other part was the ref.

[kev]

@taniwharugby we just want to see a sign that the team has a plan, executes and gets better. Bryce Woodward teams did that. We didn’t win competitions but they were teams that competed and at times played some wonderful rugby with the players they had. We need to get better and we have some exciting young talent so let’s make use of it.